Games in a Vacuum

With Andrew an eventual no-show last night, blogging duties fell to me (Sam) but I actually missed the first hour of games, as I was getting Joe (my Joe) ready for first day of secondary school this morning. Whilst we were knocking around the house doing various schooly things (eg bath) and non-schooly things (watching The Office) those present - Martin, Ian, Joe, Adam, Katy and Andy - played some games in the kitchen. I think they began with Joe's bonkers Nachtschwarmer game of erratic moth movement (-not sure who won) before Adam won Colt Super Express (the card version of Colt Express, where everyone runs around on a train shooting each other), with Joe/Katy/Ian and Andy bringing up the rear and Martin first off the train. 

I joined just in time to watch them spectacularly implode at Biss 20. It seemed a bit like Arlington Road at first, with numbers being said in scattergun order and people standing up to bow. Despite watching for a good few minutes, the number twenty was a distant dream and they packed up when Andy seemed on the verge of a nervous breakdown. By this point we knew Andrew wasn't coming, so began our seven-player stuff splitting into two groups: whilst Martin introduced Joe, Katy and Andy to Daring Dustbunnies, Adam and I coaxed Ian into trying Luzon Rails. 

Daring Dustbunnies involves some hidden identities and trying to keep your dustbunny out of the vacuum. Even though it was short and silly, we'd started playing longer and not-silly Luzon Rails whilst they were still going through the rules.

Luzon Rails was the classic simple rules/tough decisions, with players owning shares in (up to) five companies, and trying to improve their worth for dividend payouts at the end of each round. Ian's early high bid for the yellow company (which has only three shares) looked like a strong early move until Adam and I got one apiece slightly cheaper. In fact as I was comparatively cash-rich in round one, I scooped up several shares cheaply, but outside of that clearly made a poor early-20th-century industrialist, as Ian and I sensed Adam pulling away mid-game like a Formula 1 car passing a couple of mid-range saloon drivers scrutinising a map. Ian did a lot of head-scratching as the classic cube-rail dilemmas weighed heavy. 

Meantime Daring Dustbunnies was over with Katy getting a debut win over Andy in a tie-breaker (-most static), with Martin behind them and Joe apparently "lost". The rules to DD are slightly beyond my recall now so perhaps he triggered the end of the game. They began playing another new title, Silencio. I've no idea what any of it was about, except that they finished, according to the rulebook, so near and yet so far. Clarifications in the comments please!

We wrapped up Luzon Rails around the same time with Ian grimly satisfied he had more cash than the 25 he started with. No much though:

Adam 87

Sam 68

Ian 28

We all came together again for not one, but two games of Fiesta de los Muertos, notable for how badly we did, failing to appease more than two of the dead in either attempt. I'm not sure this game of clue-chaining and deduction is an entirely unqualified success - it's fun, but much of the time seems to be spent wondering what happened, and why. Plus I kept forgetting to fill in my teeth. 

Adam and Andy then bade us goodnight, and as with last week, one word-connection game beget another, with So Clover hitting the table twice in a row as well. I can't speak for everyone but at this point I was drunk enough to laugh about Joe's suggestion being rejected for a reason, it transpired, I had completely imagined. Considering the state of us - or me, anyway - we did rather well, only struggling with Katy's clues, who after all Martin reminded us, once used 'the' as a clue in Just One. Even so, a reasonably coherent display, I think, though I didn't write down any scores...

With 11 now in the past, we wrapped up another delightful GNN - until the same time next week!